"Comics have become this monopolised walled garden where you're only allowed to grow two things: superheroes and movie treatments," Pizzolo told Wired.

"We're going to open a new space outside the entrenched market where we can cultivate more subversive, experimental and literary comics to reach broader audiences."

"With both [Pizzolo comics project] Godkiller and 30 Days of Night, we discovered a large community of readers outside the comic market who really had no idea how to get comics," said Niles. "This is a way to reach those people again and expand the comic-reading audience."

Black Mask is designed to support writers and artists by being "more creator-friendly than the majors, but less winner-take-all than the indies".

Niles previously expressed concern that the industry was dependent on a single distributor, Diamond Comic Distributors.